making Fiction Making Trouble: an Interview

with

Finding horrific and complicated humanity inside of a simple stare down between a rat and an exterminator, philosophical treatises, even cracking open the words themselves and experimenting with the implications of their order.

I will just say that there are other ways to keep particles in motion and give you a little wink.

What does it mean to be troubled by a piece of writing?

I get a falling feeling in my anus.

What sort of trouble have you caused by making fiction?

I said this all in low and focused voice, almost a whisper, until he collapsed on his bar stool and sobbed in my arms. Good. There, there, my Tiny Lonesome. There, there.

When has making fiction landed you in trouble?

I looked up to avoid the scene and caught the eye of the camera man and while it was not the worst part of the worst part, it almost was.

I couldn’t believe the words that came out of my mouth then but I said, “Let’s just start over again,” and we did.

This was school.

How can one trouble the literary scene by writing, by publishing?

Whose idea was it? And does it matter? Have you formed your own opinion?

Together the mass looked like a healthy lung, we, the inhalation.

How do you know when you're writing safe?

I watch a tiny digital clock. Probably the most boring activity in the world.

When was the last time you felt troubled by a piece of writing?

the PATRIOT Act—

Fiction Collective Two is an author-run, not-for-profit publisher of artistically adventurous, non-traditional fiction. FC2 is supported in part by the University of Utah, the University of Alabama Press, and private contributors.